S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Subscribe
Get the next ClickZ Today newsletter delivered to your inbox!

« Yahoo Extends Reach in Germany With Sales Deal | Main | Quote of the Day: Joe from Bradenton, FL »

January 14, 2009

BK's 'Whopper Sacrifice' Burned on the Altar of Privacy

Burger King has disabled its hit "Whopper Sacrifice" app after Facebook asked the company to alter it in the interest of user privacy.

The application offered a free Whopper to any Facebook user who removed 10 of his or her friends. (Tagline: "You like your friends. But you love the Whopper.") The problem, from Facebook's point of view, was that anyone rubbed out for a tenth of a Whopper was told about the act, violating the company's carefully cultivated relationship of trust with users.

"We have reached out to the developer with suggested solutions," Facebook said in a comment to the Inside Facebook Blog. "In the meantime, we are taking the necessary steps to assure the trust users have established on Facebook is maintained."

The problem with Whopper Sacrifice is not limited to preserving trust. As I expressed in a post last week, the application could also be abused in the hands of facebook users bully pulpit-sized networks. That's because the removal of any friend by Whopper Sacrifice was broadcast to the news feed of the person doing the removing, and hence be read by any of his or her friends. Many of these will also be familiar with the victim. So it could be a means of ostracization.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at January 14, 2009 4:16 PM

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon Toolbar Stumble It!

Comments

Only a few days ago I was commenting that this wasn't going to work, especially with women, who wouldn't take the news of their un-friending too well. Lo and behold, they have painted a happy face on another disaster at Facebook and called this an issue with privacy. No, it was probably an issue with people getting their feelings hurt, mostly women I imagine. I can't believe that there wasn't a review of privacy aspects of this campaign by Facebook legal beagles before it launched. Privacy was probably not seen as a problem. Public display of personal putdowns was the issue they overlooked.

WomenCertified January 15, 2009 10:49 AM

I don't think it was an issue of it not working or putting down womene, but a blatant abuse of the Facebook Developer Terms of Use. Personally, I used the application to delete 10 so called friends and had fun burning their photos and am looking forward to my Whopper coupon in the mail in 1-2 weeks. Personally, I thought it was an excellent brand application execution and it was too bad that it violated Facebook policies. Next time, I would like to see Burger King support the application initiative with social media advertising and would love to get some insights into the data that they collected through the program. I am sure this could have been a social media gold mine for Burger King.

Dave Williams
CEO, BLiNQ Media LLC
dave@blinqmedia.com
http://www.blinqmedia.com

Dave Williams January 16, 2009 4:50 PM

I agree with Dave that it was a shame that it violated privacy policies on Facebook. It was a great marketing attempt and hopefully BK will continue brainstorming new, innovated ways to market their brand.

EH
I.R. Gilyeat & Co.
iangilyeat.com

EH April 8, 2009 3:31 PM

January 14, 2009

BK's 'Whopper Sacrifice' Burned on the Altar of Privacy

Comments

Post a comment